Our first caravan was a 21’6” Regent Brentwood. It was a good van but when we made the decision to go on the road full time we decided to look for a van that would take us to the places we like - ie., out in the more remote areas. We didn’t want to have to buy a new van in four or five years because the one we had was falling to bits.
After visiting many factories in Melbourne and Queensland, in January 2013 we bought a 20’ Bushtracker. Once we saw how these were constructed we were sold.
Our tow vehicle at the time was a 100 series Landcruiser. I had done a lot of work to it and it only had 60,000kms on it after six years. We had intended to keep it until it stopped – which would have been many years from now.
If we limited the amount of stuff we carried, and didn’t fill up all the water tanks we could stay within the legal towing limits – just. But it meant that many things I would have liked to have carried with us had to stay behind. And having 3.5t of van behind 3.26t of tow vehicle didn't please me. Too much chance of the tail wagging the dog.
So then we started looking at tow vehicle options which are very limited for anything over 3.5t. It’s either an Isuzu type 4x4 truck or one of the American utes. We bought a Chev Silverado 2500 that will carry a payload around 1t, and can tow 5t. It’s not what I particularly like but it tows the van effortlessly and safely and the bonus is that it’s very comfortable and more economical than the 100 series.
Since getting the Chev we have upgraded the van ATM to 4.4t. If we wanted to we can now load all the stuff we want, plus up to six weeks of food, 500 litres of water in the van and another 160 litres in the Chev, 210 litres of diesel and we’re still within the legal limits.
There's a photo down below – taken at Ross Dam in Townsville at a HFRC get together.
Regards
John and Jenny
Does you unit have the high output eng chip/exhaust mod and the 8sp Alison transmission? 
